Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

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Category: Feld

Elul 29. Reflections on a month of soul-preparation

September 17, 2009 /

Tonight is the last night of the blog before Erev Rosh Hashanah.  For those who have written, read or contributed, I hope that it has provided an opportunity for daily pause and reflection and that this year’s Rosh Hashanah, 10 days of repentance, and Yom Kippur, we are able entered more mindfully and more centered as a result of these daily moments of reflection.  


Last Saturday night, when our local communities joined together for a staged reading of Merle Feld’s ‘The Gates are Closing’, we learnt about 10 individuals and the pains, losses, guilt, silences, and fractures that each character carried from the lives they had lived up to this moment.  From the perspective of the audience it was so powerfully evident that no-one who begins to reflect on the parts of their lives that need healing and the places where teshuvah can help them reconnect, re-center, and drawer closer to a God-presence in their lives when they enter a synagogue sanctuary on Yom Kippur, can possibly hope to complete the process in a 25 hour period. We need time to contemplate, to speak healing, forgiving, or confessional words to others, to God, and to re-commit ourselves to aiming toward new patterns of behavior in the coming years.  The month of Elul provides us with the gift of this time, if we choose to accept it.


But while these days are Judaism’s annual invitation to return, the possibility is always there.  If we are open to God’s comforting Presence, accompanying us and holding us as we find the courage to do the difficult work of teshuvah and growth, we will find that the gates never truly close.


Over this past month Sh’ma Koleinu – Hear Our Voices, has received more than 500 visitors.  The blog will be continuing into the New Year, not on a daily basis (although a kabbalistic reflection series is in the works when we arrive at the Counting of the Omer, after Pesach), but there will be more coming between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a weekly reflection just before Shabbat, and festival reflections throughout the year.  An invitation to share teachings, practices, and reflections remains open – we continue to strive to expand the number of voices represented on these pages, so please do send in pieces that you’d like to contribute.


Wishing everyone a Shanah Tovah u’m’tukah – a very Happy & Sweet New Year,
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

Elul 25. A night of S’lichot to Remember

September 14, 2009 /

Last night our S’lichot program and service, held jointly with Beth El of Fairfield and B’nai Torah of Trumbull, proved to be a very powerful experience for all involved.  The first part of the evening consisted of a staged reading of Merle Feld’s play ‘The Gates Are Closing’.  More on that later in the week – it is such a rich and powerful piece that it needs its own blog entry.  The depth of reflection and sharing from members of our joint community following the reading was as much a part of the experience as the play itself.  As one of our colleagues, Rabbi Dan Satlow reflected that, while he may tell his community during the High Holydays that others at nearby synagogues are reciting the same prayers as they are, by coming together and sharing these reflections, and praying together, we felt the reality of that commonality and the partnership of Jewish community extended beyond congregational boundaries as experienced rather than abstract.


The service itself was also a reflection of multiple voices and styles, seamlessly woven together from the contributions of 4 rabbis, 2 cantors and 1 rabbinical student.  It was remarkable because there was almost no advance planning involved in this part, yet the earlier evening program had really opened up the energy and spirit of S’lichot such that each leader could tap into that Source, and the whole that emerged felt like some of the most powerful praying we had all experienced in a while.


Beyond the specifics of the prayers, the melodies, the play, the discussion, bringing three communities together, blending our approaches and contributions, felt in and of itself like the holiest of vehicles on which we could be carried from S’lichot into this week leading up to Rosh Hashanah.
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

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